Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 83
83 to leave his home and country and to suffer separation from his relatives and friends for the sake of God. Besides these, the Holy Quran ascribes to the pilgrim- age an object which is peculiar to it. The pilgrimage to Mecca is a symbol of the respect shown to places where the will of God was manifested and reminds people of the incidents connected with that manifestation. It reminds them of Ishmael’s as being left in the desert by Abraham as , and how those who make sacrifices in the path of God are protected and honoured; it thus fosters their faith in the power and might of God. Also, the pilgrim, on finding himself near the place which has, from the beginning of the world, been dedicated to the worship of God, is sure to experience a peculiar spiritual association with those who have through numerous centuries been bound together by the love and remem- brance of God, and among them he also counts himself. Besides this, the pilgrimage has a great political objective underlying it. Leading Muslims from all parts of the world who meet together once a year can ex- change views and establish and renew relations of love and brotherhood. They have opportunities of acquaint- ing themselves with the problems that confront them in different countries, of benefiting from each other’s experience, and of devising methods of cooperating with each other. I am sorry, however, to observe that no advantage is, at present, being taken of this aspect of the pilgrimage. The fifth mode of worship prescribed by Islam is sacrifice. Many people fail to understand the signifi- cance of sacrifice in Islam. They imagine that the ani-